Landen Worcester of Bluffton looks for space against LCC on Friday night in Bluffton.
Chris Howell | The Lima News
BLUFFTON — Bluffton played “lights out” football again on Friday night.
In this case, that’s not a figure of speech. The lights actually went out twice during Bluffton’s 35-0 win over LCC, causing two separate delays, one before the opening kick and another with 4:04 left in the first half.
But even the combination of two power outages, the pouring rain and high-speed winds weren’t nearly enough to slow down the unbeaten Pirates, who prepared for the conditions this week with wet footballs in practice.
“A big part of this preparation started in the preseason when I told the coaching staff that we’re going to be as hard on them as we could so that we were ready for situations that’ll be abnormally difficult,” Bluffton coach Jeff Richards said. “Tonight we had gale-force winds and heavy rain for an entire game and some power outages. They responded well. Especially with those long breaks we were forced to take. They could have gotten complacent but they did a great job.”
At no point in the shutout victory did Bluffton (6-0, 3-0 NWC) let its foot off the gas pedal.
Offensively the Pirates out-gained LCC 418-63.
Tayte Giesige accounted for all five touchdowns, four of them on the ground and the fifth on a 61-yard pass to Griffin Stackhouse. The 6-1, 175-pound quarterback completed 6 of his 7 passes for 89 yards and ran for 171 yards on 17 carries.
Giesige’s effort in the ground game, combined with Landen Worcester (14 carries, 77 yards) and Parker Lovell’s rushing stats (13 carries, 64 yards), added up to 329 yards on 44 carries.
“He’s a competitor and he’s hard on himself because he wants to be the best he can possibly be,” Richards said of Giesige. “He works very hard and does everything he should do to be a great quarterback and every week we’re seeing something better out of him.”
Giesige ended Bluffton’s opening drive, which lasted 15 plays, with a 9-yard rushing touchdown. Three plays earlier, he ran for 14 yards on 4th and 13 to set up the score.
LCC’s first possession ended on its fourth play when Brady Parker was picked off by Quinn Eachus, who made the interception on a deep pass down the visiting sideline.
“LCC has so many plays when their guys win jump balls and they had one of the craziest catches of the season on one of those plays in their first game,” Richards said. “Quinn’s a smart player who watches a ton of film and that takes him a long way.”
Eachus’s turnover set up a 53-yard touchdown run from Giesige early in the second quarter.
Bluffton held a 21-0 lead at the break after Giesige ran for his third score of the half with just over three minutes left from 26 yards out.
The Pirates scored twice in the third quarter to put the running clock in motion on Stackhouse’s 61-yard catch and a 4-yard run from Giesige.
LCC’s longest drive of the game was in the fourth quarter. It lasted seven plays, traveled 35 yards and ended in a turnover on downs.
Parker ended the night completing just 2 of his 13 passes for 10 yards with 16 rushing yards on 4 carries. As a team, LCC (4-2, 2-1 NWC) gained 63 total yards. Eddie White ran for 34 yards in the second half.
Matthew Quatman, who entered the night as the second-leading rusher in the Northwest Conference, ended the game with 1 yard on 2 carries.
Score by quarters
BL 7 14 14 0 – 35
LCC 0 0 0 0 – 0
Scoring Summary
BL — Tayte Giesige 9-yard run (Jackson Brauen kick) — 3:57, 1st
BL — Tayte Giesige 53-yard run (Jackson Brauen kick) — 11:11, 2nd
BL — Tayte Giesige 26-yard run (Jackson Brauen kick) — 3:09, 2nd
BL — Griffin Stackhouse 61-yard reception from Tayte Giesige (Jackson Brauen kick) — 10:33, 3rd
BL — Tayte Giesige 4-yard run (Jackson Brauen kick) — 5:05, 3rd
Passing
LCC — Brady Parker 2/13, 10 yards, INT
BL — Tayte Giesige 6/7, 89 yards, TD
Rushing
LCC — Eddie White 3 carries, 34 yards
BL — Tayte Giesige 17 carries, 171 yards, 4 TDs
Receiving
LCC — Jaxon White 1 catch, 8 yards
BL — Griffin Stackhouse 1 reception, 61 yards, TD
Total yards
LCC — 63
BL — 418
Reach Chris Howell at 567-242-0468 or on Twitter/X at @Lima_Howell
